Illinois Power Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

Illinois Power Company asks us to reverse a decision of the Tax Court assessing a deficiency in the company's 1975 federal income taxes of $7 million and a deficiency in its 1976 federal income taxes of $0.6 million. 83 T.C. 842 (1984). The assessment for 1975 relates to investment tax credit, the assessment for 1976 to certain receipts that the government characterizes as income. Although the issues raised by these two assessments are unrelated as a matter of substantive law, both involve the recurrent issue in tax law — in law, period— of how to classify into just two…